


Hurt

by werewolfboy



Series: You Only Live Forever [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Canon Universe, Mild Gore, Nonbinary Character, Not Canon Compliant, Other, nb character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:13:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26296978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/werewolfboy/pseuds/werewolfboy
Summary: Kakuzu and Kumakichi go out on a bounty hunt, and Kumakichi gets hurt recklessly. Kakuzu is Big Mad and Kumakichi reflects on their life while they cool down after the initial fight.
Relationships: Kakuzu (Naruto)/Original Character(s), Kakuzu (Naruto)/Original Nonbinary Character
Series: You Only Live Forever [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/714753
Kudos: 6





	Hurt

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back! I came back and I wrote something and I posted it! Recently there was someone who read and commented on the fics in this series and it made me want to come back and do something else. This is for me, and also for you.  
> Also, same shit as before, Kumakichi is NOT a boy OR a girl, they are nonbinary!!

“I  _ said _ , that  _ hurts _ ! Fucking  _ ow _ , be gentle with me here!” Kumakichi hissed at their lover, who calmly and deftly continued to stitch up a large cut on the top of their thigh. There were a few other cuts on their chest and arms that needed the same treatment but the blood flow from Kumakichi’s thigh had been bright and very concerning. Kakuzu was, however, extremely well versed in stitching up fatal or soon to be fatal wounds.

That didn’t mean he was at all gentle.

The stitching process was still remarkably quick, and Kakuzu tossed a pot of salve at them when it was done. Kumakichi caught it in their left hand and gave it a whiff, recoiling at the pungent odor. “What the hell is this now?” They moved it away from their face and curled their lip to try and get rid of what scent remained in their nose.

“It’s to keep infection away. Don’t lose it. Put it on. Now.” The clipped sentences were barely polite, and Kumakichi sensed anger behind the calm in his voice. They obediently began to apply the disgusting green salve onto their cuts, giving grunts of discomfort when it congealed and smelled worse than before.

“That’s enough.” Kakuzu said.

“.. Are you going to tell me why you’re angry, or should I just guess?” Kumakichi said bluntly, putting the pot away in their bag. Kakuzu stared at them silently, and sat down across from them without breaking eye contact.

“You were reckless. You got yourself seriously injured. I had to step in because you couldn’t handle it.” Kakuzu stated coldly. “If I wasn’t here, you would have bled out from the cut on your thigh even if you somehow applied a proper tourniquet in the middle of that battle.”

Kumakichi glared openly, heat rising to their cheeks. Kakuzu’s gaze remained cold and impassive and they broke eye contact to stare down at their thigh instead, burning with shame. He was right. Kumakichi had been sloppy this time, and there was no excuse.

“It isn’t like I would have died from that alone, though...” They began sullenly, not meeting his gaze for an instant. Kakuzu shifted and Kumakichi heard the bones of his fist crack and then relax as the tendrils that he had been using to stitch them up returned to their rightful place.

“You’re right. You wouldn’t have died. You would just have been a liability to whoever was here with you instead of me. You would just have revealed a crucial weakness to whoever else was here instead of me.” He grew angrier and quieter with each word and Kumakichi tensed. 

_ Just because you’re immortal now doesn’t mean you get a free pass to be reckless. Knives still cut and you’ll still bleed out, except that that alone can’t kill you anymore.  _ A lecture from their father, once upon a time in the mountains of their homeland what felt like eons ago. Kumakichi had tried to live by those words, but they weren’t good at it. Their body was littered with scars as a testament to each failure, and now Kakuzu had joined Kumakichi’s father in the ranks of the disappointed.

Kumakichi didn’t know if it was Kakuzu’s anger or the blood loss, but they felt suddenly nauseous and dizzy. Their eyelids drooped heavily and they wavered, trying to keep upright but knowing their body was sliding earthwards. Kakuzu didn’t break their fall, nor did he stay by their side after they fell. The last thing Kumakichi saw before they passed out was the older man’s back leaving the tent, and then everything went black.

They woke some time later with a buzzing head and a dry throat, but no pain anywhere else. It was dark, and the forest obscured whatever moonlight would have shown them their surroundings- Kumakichi’s eyes adjusted quickly enough anyway. They rolled over and grunted, their limbs still heavy with sleep. Kakuzu was nowhere to be seen, and Kumakichi cursed as they slowly got up on their feet. The old bastard had packed up the camp around Kumakichi’s prone body and gone on without them, which fed Kumakichi’s ire, but a part of him felt a distinct spike of fear. 

Was he really that angry with them?

Kumakichi trudged slowly forward, getting their bearings and following the scent trail that Kakuzu had left. He wasn’t that far ahead judging by the freshness of scent, Kumakichi figured that he’d slowed down once he’d calmed down a little. A calm Kakuzu was less likely to snap at them, but it was highly likely that Kumakichi would have to beg forgiveness anyway. They weren’t yet sure that they wouldn’t immediately get angry at him for just leaving them in the dirt, so they slowed their own pace. 

Thoughts of their father came unbidden. Kumakichi remembered their youth on the mountains, spending every day since they could run drilling like a soldier. At the time, they’d resented all of his lessons, sure that his disapproval went more than skin deep. Now sometimes, they missed him. But it had been a century or more (or less, the days went by and things began to blur after a time.) Things had changed, and Kumakichi had more than dabbled in the forbidden techniques and become a monster to their clan and kinsmen. 

Not that it mattered for long. Lines were crossed, and words were said that no one could have taken back. Another lesson their father had once given them, “Choices made and words spoken in anger can never truly be taken back no matter how hard one wishes for it to be so.” They had made their choices, and the fallout… Well, their father had been right and Kumakichi had lived to see the wisdom in his words and regret it. 

No family, no kinsmen, nothing. They were all gone now. Long gone, with their bones turned to dust and no historians had ever recorded their history and their ways.

In every sense of the phrase, it was like they’d never existed. Kumakichi regretted it, but they’d adjusted. Not well, but they’d adjusted.

Kakuzu understood that about them. He hadn’t judged them weak, he hadn’t judged them at all. But now, Kumakichi had crossed the line. They were beginning to think they had, anyhow. Kakuzu was a surly and easily irritable man, a condition long ingrained from a combination of solitude and immortality. Kumakichi’s immortality had given them nothing but loneliness and anger, and they had been reckless with it.

Perhaps… Perhaps they should have been more careful. Things had changed again and again and there was a group that relied on Kumakichi- or at the very least their abilities. More than that, there was Kakuzu, who also couldn’t die as easily and who also (though he’d never admit it) relied on Kumakichi as well.

They’d let him down by being reckless. Had the enemy been stronger, they would have put him in danger. Kumakichi had let the enemy’s weakness tempt them to recklessness.

“Shit.” They pinched the bridge of their nose and stopped walking. “Oh, he’s right. He was right. Fuck.”

Not their best moment, admittedly. 

“Is that so?” Kakuzu’s voice came from somewhere up and to the right in the dark. 

Kumakichi whipped their head in the direction of the noise and spotted the trunk of a particularly old and gnarled tree. They’d been so lost in thought they hadn’t noticed the scent trail abruptly ended there, in the tree’s thick lower branches. In the dark, Kakuzu’s green eyes glowed strangely pale.

“... I didn’t see you.” Kumakichi said.

“I noticed.” He didn’t move. The scrutiny was intense. Neither he nor Kumakichi said anything for a long pause.

“You were right.” Kumakichi broke the silence first, having never learned not to be impatient. “Earlier. What you said about… The thing.”

“I was wrong. You… I should have been more careful. I’m sorry.” Kumakichi’s face burned and they looked away from him for a moment.

Silence.

Then, without warning, Kakuzu was right next to them and tossing their bedroll at them. Kumakichi caught it with their left hand and tucked it under their arm, shooting the man a curious look. 

“Be more careful next time.” Kakuzu said, by way of accepting their apology. It was as close as he ever got to being straightforward. Kumakichi took it in stride and leaned on him, their way of nonverbally communicating agreement.

“I love you.”

Kumakichi froze for a moment, wide-eyed. It had been so quiet they almost hadn’t caught it even with their keen senses. 

“I love you, too.”


End file.
